The present invention relates to a method and device for associating names between two components in an enterprise application.
In order to provide rapid deployment and high profits, there has been a growing demand for rapid development, reduced development costs, and higher quality in enterprise applications. These demands have encouraged improved reusability and portability in enterprise applications, leading to the mainstream acceptance of the component model.
In the component model, task modules are collected into components. Components are deployed to a component execution module, which serves as an execution platform for the component. In deployment, an operator sets up component attributes that are dependent on the component execution module and installs the component in the component execution module.
One example of the component model is described in “Enterprise JavaBeans Specification, v1.1 (1999) from Sun Microsystems Corp. (US). In this example, components referred to as Enterprise Beans (hereinafter referred to as “EJB components”) are deployed in EJB Containers serving as the component execution modules.
Another example of the component model is described in “Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition Specification, v1.2 (1999)” from Sun Microsystems Corp. (US). This document (hereinafter referred to as, “J2EE”) is oriented toward the development of multi-level enterprise applications. Components are grouped within each level, and the grouped components are deployed to component execution modules associated with the components.
In the component model, a component can look up another component in order to establish cooperation between the components. For components to cooperate, during the deployment of the components, an association must be made between a logical component name, stored in the first component, of the second component referred to by the first component and a physical component name, stored in the second component, of the second component. A logical component name is a name that uniquely identifies the component among all other components. A physical component name is a name that uniquely identify the component within a given component execution module.
In the conventional technologies, logical component names are associated with physical component names by having the component deployer look up the component setting information in order to manually associate logical component names with physical component names one by one. The component settings information, which can take the form of a manual, includes a table that associates logical component names with physical component names and a table that associates physical component names with logical component names. Component information includes component types and the names of external interfaces, which are the interfaces used to operate components from outside the component execution module. Component information can also include component descriptions that describe components. The component deployer can use the component descriptions to identify the components.